Beyond Death
by Miss Pads
Summary: Coming first, I saw everything that happened after he took me down. Watching Voldemort going after my family had to be the most agonizing experience I had ever gone through in my life. M for death situation.


Disclaimer: I do not own any of these amazing characters, and if I ever did own James, he would not have married Lily, had Harry, and the world would have been a much sadder place without these books. Anyway, you all know it's all Queen J.K's stuff.

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_ They had not drawn the curtains, he saw them quite clearly in their little sitting room, the tall black haired man in his glasses making puffs of colored smoke erupt from his wand for the amusement of the small black haired boy in his blue pajamas, the child was laughing and trying to catch the smoke, to grab it in his small fist. A door opened and the mother entered, saying words he could not hear, her long dark-red hair falling over her face. Now the father scooped up the son and handed him to his mother. He threw his wand down upon the sofa and stretched, yawning._

_ The gate creaked a little as i pushed it open, but James Potter did not hear. His white hand pulled out the wand beneath his cloak and pointed it at the door, which burst open he was over the threshold as James came sprinting in the hall. It was easy, too easy he had not even picked up his wand._

_ "Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off!"_

_ "Avada Kedavra"_

_ The green light filled the cramped hallway, it lit the pram pushes against the wall, it made the banisters glare like lightning rods and James Potter fell like a marionette whose strings were cut. He could hear her screaming from the upper floor, trapped. But as long as she was sensible, she, at least, had nothing to fear... He climbed the steps, listening with faint amusement to her attempts to barricade herself in, she had no wand upon her either... How stupid they were, and how trusting, thinking that their safety lay in friends. That weapons could be discarded even for moments._

_ He forced the door open, cast aside the chair and boxes hastily piled against it with one lazy wave and there she stood, the child in her arms. At the sight of him she dropped her son in the crib behind her and threw her arms wide, as if this would help, as if in shielding him from sight she hope to be chosen instead._

_ "Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!"  
"Stand aside, you silly girl… Stand aside now"  
"Not Harry, please no, take me, and kill me instead-"  
"This is my last warning"  
"Not Harry! Please… Have mercy… Have mercy... Have mercy… Not Harry! Not Harry! Please… I'll do anything!"_

_ "Stand aside, stand aside girl." _

_ He could have forced her away from the crib but it seemed more prudent to finish them all The green light flashed around the room and she dropped like her husband. The child had not cried at all this time._

_ He could stand, clutching the bars of his crib, and he looked up into the intruders face with a kind of bright interest, perhaps thinking it was his father who his beneath the cloak, making more pretty lights, and his mother would pop up any moment, laughing he pointed the wand very carefully into the boy's face. He wanted to see it happen, the destruction of this one, inexplicable danger. The child began to cry it had seen that he was not James. He did not like it crying, he had never been able to stomach the small ones whining in the orphanage.  
"Avada Kedavra"_

_ And then he broke. He was nothing, nothing but pain and terror, and he must hide himself, not here in the rubble of the ruined house, where the child was trapped and screaming, but far away... Far away._

_Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, pages 343-345, American Version._

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Coming first, I saw everything that happened after he took me down. And I admit, I had been stupid, and all so trusting. The first thing I thought was how I couldn't believe Peter had been the spy, and how I should have listened to Dumbledore, or never listened to Sirius, and let him be Secret Keeper. I didn't care if Remus suspected him, Sirius would have been the last person on earth to betray me and Lily. And stupid, because in times like this, I had left my wand out of reach, and been an all so easy target. I could see my lifeless body there, where he had disposed of me, and Lily running up the stairs with Harry.

She ran into the nursery, and it physically pained me that she hadn't taken her wand, she could have apparated, gone anywhere, gone to Hogwarts, Dumbledore would protect her. He was close behind, in no hurry, his wand safe in his hand. She cradled Harry, as she yelled, it made me hurt even further. She didn't have her wand with her, this was a lost game, and the worst thing was knowing it.

She closed the door, and put up the nursery stuff to hold him off, but I know that would be a simple wave of his wand, and he proved me right, when he forced the door open, and waved the stuff aside, Lily put Harry down in the crib, and opened her arms wide in front of it. I knew it wouldn't help, but a warm feeling spread through my heart, or better, should I say soul? As she did. My wife was the bravest woman I knew.

I heard, as she pleaded him, to take her instead of Harry like I knew she would, and how he dismissed her. He wasn't after us after all, he was after our son, a defenseless baby, and I still didn't understand why. Dumbledore only said he had chosen us, he'd go after Harry. What would Voldemort want with a baby was beyond what any of us could understand. And while I thought that was when he did it.

I saw the green light coming out of his wand, and Lily falling down to the floor like I might have. The pain shot through me like it never had before, I wanted to cry, but I couldn't produce tears anymore, I wanted to scream, but no one would hear me, no one alive anyway, I wanted to fall to my knees and take in the agony, but I was floating in the air, even now on my knees I wasn't standing over anything.

I watched as he went on, and pointed his wand at my son, my beautiful baby boy, who was all me, but had his mother's amazing eyes. Harry was crying, standing on his crib, holding onto the bars, as that horrible stranger, pointed a wand to his face. I wanted to close my eyes, but I couldn't I watched, as he mumbled the spell, and something went wrong. There was a huge noise, and the top half of the house was blown off. My son was still there, very much alive in his crib, and Voldemort... He was gone.

Surely not dead, I thought, there was no way, Harry, my son, my one year old son, could have killed the mot powerful dark wizard of all time unconsciously. I got up to my feet again, I wanted to get closer, I wanted to look at him, I wanted to stop him from crying, comfort my son, be his dad, for longer than I had had the opportunity to. Tell him he didn't have to be alone, his mother and I would be here, that's when I looked beside me, and I saw her.

And it hit me, that last time she had went to see Dumbledore without me, he had talked to her, she had died to save our son, that had protected him. Love, love above all, that's what Dumbledore had always said, and that was what had saved our son. I moved towards her, and wrapped my arms around Lily, my Lily, my pretty Lily.

"You are the bravest witch I ever knew, Lily." I told her, pulling my face down to look at her. To me, her eyes were still as green as they had always been, but perhaps that was due to the fact that both of us now, were in the same state. We were both about to leave this earth, and some godly creature was allowing us a few last moments here.

She looked up at me surprised, then back to our house, she had been watching the last moments too, I could figure. She had a slight smile hanging from her lips, but her eyes were sad. I could tell she was somewhat happy that what she had done had worked, but sad, that we would never get to be with our son again. She focused on me again, after a while, and whispered. "You waited for me..." I could chuckle at the absurdity of that sentence.

"Lily, it took me seven years to get you, I wasn't about to lose you in after life." I asked, not really knowing if calling it afterlife was the right term, but I didn't know what else to call it, this was still all too new to me, I was too used to being alive, it was hard to think of myself as dead. She was silent for a while, and I stroked her red hair, content beyond belief that I could still do it. Not being able to would have made afterlife miserable.

"What do you think is going to be of him?" She asked, and I noticed she was looking now at the half exploded piece of our house, where Harry still cried in his crib.

"A little hair ruffling, Quidditch genius, adventurer like his father, and a beautiful, charming, humble person, like his mother." I smiled down at her, holding her face. In that selfish moment, I was glad she was there with me. I didn't think about our son, for a second, because I couldn't imagine what it would be like to go on without her. The moment I thought about Harry, I felt guilty.

"And what about... Voldemort, do you think he's dead?" she asked in a whisper of a voice.

"Honestly?" My voice was more sober, serious now. "No, I don't. I don't know where he's gone, or what happened to him, but I don't think he's dead." I shook my head slowly, looking back at the house. I thought for once, he would be here, would have appeared to us, if he had been dead, but there had to be a separation of good and bad people in afterlife, or else afterlife would be miserable for all the good people in the world. "But I don't think he's coming back for a while."

"He's going after Harry, once he gets back, isn't he, James?" She asked, her voice cracking, and I could tell not being able to cry in this moment was frustrating her. Lily would have loved to just be able to cry, and I would have loved to comfort her.

"We can only hope Harry will be ready, when he does." I told her, nodding curtly. "Ready like we weren't." I added, feeling slightly ashamed of myself, feeling guilty for all this in a way I knew Lily wasn't. It was I who insisted on using Sirius, and who obliged to using Peter. Lily would have been happy taking the help from Dumbledore.

"Don't blame yourself for Peter, James." She told me, as if reading what was going on through her mind, and I offered her a small smile. "You couldn't have known." She said, leaning closer to me. "You know, I always loved the way you smiled, and laughed?" She asked, and I frowned. "Even when I wasn't ready to admit I liked you, as a person. I had to fight the urge to smile back when you smiled at me, and the monstrous butterflies in my stomach, whenever you laughed."

"Merlin! Now you're telling me that, woman?" I asked her, shaking my head in disbelief. "I guess you do have to die, to find out some things about life." I said, in a small smile, and she nodded, smiling sadly at me. "He'll be alright Lily. We have to believe so." I said, holding her tight, and she clung to me. "He has all our friends, and Dumbledore." I added, taking a deep breath. "Dumbledore won't let anything bad happen to him." I whispered to her, and she nodded.

We stayed silent for a while longer, looking at the house, looking at our son, he had stopped crying, and I wasn't sure if he was now sleeping. The pleasures of being a baby, and not understanding your surroundings yet. After a while, we looked up at the sound of a familiar motorbike roaring through the sky, and an also familiar, but unexpected person riding it. But I smiled, knowing exactly why Hagrid was here to take our son.

"See, I told you Dumbledore would take care of him." I told Lily, and she nodded, as we watched Hagrid driving the bike straight into the blasted nursery and picking up our son. Lily clutched at my arm, and I resumed stroking her hair. "He'll be alright." I whispered, and she nodded again, once we watched the bike flying out again, passing by less then a yard away from us. I looked down at Lily after a couple of minutes, after looking back at the house. "I think it's time for us to go, Pretty Lily." I told her, and she looked up at me, nodding in agreement, leaning to kiss me. And to me, her lips felt as they had always felt in life.

"Beyond death do us part." She smiled at me, and I laughed, nodding in agreement, kissing my wife's forehead.

"Beyond death do us part." I whispered, holding onto her hand, and leading her, as we left that house in Godric's Hollow, our friends, our life, and our son behind. Alas knowing, that Harry would be safe, because of the people we had left in this world. The people that wouldn't be coming with us. The people that we had loved, and that would love our son too. Harry Potter, the boy who lived.

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**N/A: **Whew! God, it hurt me to write this. But it would have hurt even more not to. I knew when it came to me that I'd have to put it on paper (in this case, type it down on word LOL) Anyway, I talked through the idea with my best friend first, and she said it was amazing, so I gave it a shot. I hope I did two of my favorite characters justice, and I hope you all enjoy it. It's been a little while since I've written fan fiction, so I hope you forgive me if it's not up to the standards around here, hehe.


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